Friday, June 29, 2012

LESSONS I LEARNED FROM ROSETTA

When I was 14, my mother talked her office manager at Oregon
Mutual Insurance Company into hiring me as a file clerk for a month in the
summer when the regular clerk went on vacation. The job was simple enough: file
the case folders and index cards back in their alphabetical drawers after they
were used. There were lots of cards, lots of folders and lots of drawers. It
was very boring, the room was hot and stuffy and I frequently sat on the little
stool, pulled out a lower drawer and laid my head down for a nap.

Rosetta would pass by the file room on her way to the
restroom and discover me nodding off.
She would duck in, shake me awake and say, “Wake up Phyllice, you’re
sleeping again. I told them you were a good worker. If the boss catches you,
you’ll lose your job and I’ll lose mine, too.”

I’m sure that during that month, Rosetta must have made a
hundred trips to the Ladies’ Room just to check on me.

f

Rosetta had a gift that is often referred to as “a keen
sense of the obvious”. You could come to her with any problem—personal or
academic—lay out the facts and she would cut through all the B.S. to give you
the one best answer. That’s why everyone came to her for advice. She wasn’t
judgmental, she didn’t over analyze, she just saw the unvarnished truth.

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Rosetta the Dancing Queen

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Now available in Kindle and Paperback

ABOUT ROSETTA

Born in 1909, Rosetta was the youngest of ten children in a zany immigrant family. She talks about growing up in the early 1900s when cars were still being developed, very few people had telephones or radios and getting an education beyond grammar school was a privilege for children in families of modest means.

Laughter was Rosetta's companion throughout her long llife--nearly 97 years, and she had the ability to inspire others to achieve beyond what they thought possible.

Her handwritten memoir was turned into "Can We Come In and Laugh, Too?", now available in paperback and digital editions. So grab a comfortable chair and share a bit of laughter with her.